Sorry if I am dragging this thread back up from the depths...I've actually been pondering this since the thread was new (not constantly though!). I finally decided that what I consider songs with universal themes would probably fit here.

I remembered listening to an interview with Steve Kilbey, the singer/lyricist for The Church, and hearing him answer the question "what are your songs about" by saying that nearly every song of his was exploring "the pain of being human." For me that explanation just really clicked...many people explore that happy aspects of life, but ignore the more troubling aspects. Now, I have never considered The Church's music to be gloom and doom or "I hate the world and the world hates me wah wah wah," but they tend to explore the more melancholy side of life, and yet, oddly that can be remarkably uplifting.

So most of The Church's catalog (the songs with lyrics by SK anyway, which are most) and most of SK's solo output fits that universal theme.

A Church song which I think really has a universal theme is "After Everything" from theit 2002 release After Evertyhing Now This.

Now that it's over I find myself leaving
The sounds permeate in all directions at once
I never said goodbye to the family, lovers
Brothers and daughters, the rest of the bunch

It seems so strange that the things I was chasing
Have all evaporated like a distant dream
Petty ambition, petty obstruction
Something in between

I really thought it would go on forever
Never believed they would sever the ties
All of the questions remaining unanswered
A stranger's reflection in a stranger's eyes

Here is a child playing in a garden
Here is an old man with a broken heart
Here comes a train to take you away
It all goes round and round and comes back to the start

I was never really sure what I was waiting for
When the moment came I was looking away
Obsessed with a past, scared of the future
Never took the time to be here today

After everything now this happens
It's not a grand illusion, it's a stupid little trick
The show must go on, these people have paid
You're standing in the wings feeling kinda sick

Never really sure what you were waiting for
When the moment came you just couldn't choose
The fog sweeps down over the marine city
Standing backstage trying to pull on your shoes

And I've always thought "Under the Milky Way" is the definitive "I wish I knew what the hell is going on" song. And I think everyone knows that feeling!

Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty
Sound of their breath fades with the light
I think about the loveless fascination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Lower the curtain down in Memphis
Lower the curtain down all right
I got no time for private consultation
Under the Milky Way tonight

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

And it's something quite peculiar
Something that's shimmering and white
It leads you here despite your destination
Under the Milky Way tonight

Under the Milky Way tonight

And from Steve's 2001 solo release, Dabble, is "Time to Say Goodbye"

When it's time to say goodbye
When it's time to say goodbye
When it's time to say goodbye
Waiting for you in the sky

Born alone everyone
Everything under the sun
Stay that way till kingdom come again

When it's time to leave you here
Waiting for you to appear

Always end to suffering
A long sweet rest for everything
Silence for the song we sing again

When it's time to say goodbye
Waiting for you in the sky
Waiting for you in the sky
When it's time to say goodbye

I think of these as three of the more obvious ones, but so many Church/Kilbey songs fit this.

*** You have to remember I'm a huge Church fan and I have used their music to get me through many things in my life, both good and bad. ***